We Women of Beit Hanoun Overcame Our Fear

BEIT HANOUN ó On Wednesday at dawn, the Israeli air
force bombed and destroyed my home. I was the target, but instead the
attack killed my sister-in-law, Nahla, a widow with eight children in
her care. In the same raid Israelís artillery shelled a residential
district in the town of Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, leaving 19 dead
and 40 injured, many killed in their beds. One family, the Athamnas,
lost 16 members in the massacre: The oldest who died, Fatima, was 70;
the youngest, Dima, was one; seven were children. The death toll in Beit
Hanoun has passed 90 in one week.

This is Israelís tenth incursion into Beit Hanoun since it announced its
withdrawal from Gaza. It has turned the town into a closed military
zone, collectively punishing its 28,000 residents. For days, the town
has been encircled by Israeli tanks and troops and shelled. All water
and electricity supplies were cut off and, as the death toll continued
to mount, no ambulances were allowed in. Israeli soldiers raided houses,
shut up the families and positioned their snipers on roofs, shooting at
everything that moved. We still do not know what has become of our sons,
husbands and brothers since all males over 15 years old were taken away
last Thursday. They were ordered to strip to their underwear, handcuffed
and led away.

It is not easy as a mother, sister or wife to watch those you love
disappear before your eyes. Perhaps that was what helped me, and 1,500
other women, to overcome our fear and defy the Israeli curfew last
Friday ó and set about freeing some of our young men who were besieged
in a mosque while defending us and our city against the Israeli military
machine.

We faced the most powerful army in our region unarmed. The soldiers were
loaded up with the latest weaponry, and we had nothing, except each
other and our yearning for freedom. As we broke through the first
barrier, we grew more confident, more determined to break the
suffocating siege. The soldiers of Israelís so-called defense force did
not hesitate to open fire on unarmed women. The sight of my close
friends Ibtissam Yusuf Abu Nada and Rajaa Ouda taking their last
breaths, bathed in blood, will live with me for ever.

Later an Israeli plane shelled a bus taking children to a kindergarten.
Two children were killed, along with their teacher. In the last week 30
children have died. We clutch our children tightly when we go to sleep,
vainly hoping that we can shield them from Israelís tanks and warplanes.

But as though this occupation and collective punishment were not enough,
we Palestinians find ourselves the targets of a systematic siege imposed
by the so-called free world. We are being starved and suffocated as a
punishment for daring to exercise our democratic right to choose who
rules and represents us. Nothing undermines the Westís claims to defend
freedom and democracy more than what is happening in Palestine. I have
yet to hear Western condemnation that I, an elected MP, have had my home
demolished and relatives killed by Israelís bombs.

Why should we Palestinians have to accept the theft of our land, the
ethnic cleansing of our people, incarcerated in forsaken refugee camps,
and the denial of our most basic human rights, without protesting and
resisting?

The lesson the world should learn from Beit Hanoun last week is that
Palestinians will never relinquish our land, towns and villages. We will
not surrender our legitimate rights for a piece of bread or handful of
rice.

Whoever wants peace in Palestine and the region must direct their words
and sanctions to the occupier, not the occupied, the aggressor not the
victim. The truth is that the solution lies with Israel, its army and
allies ó not with Palestineís women and children.

ó Jameela Al-Shanti is an elected member of the Palestinian Legislative
Council for Hamas. She can be reached at: jameela.shanti@gmail.com